Odsal Sporting Village

Taken directly from the council executive meeting of December 18th - Do I sense a ground share looming? Sounds like the council fancy it!! Also noted that we will get a decision in March, definitely, maybe!!

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Progress of the Odsal Sports Village (OSV) Project

The Odsal Sports Village project has much to commend it. It will enable Bradford’s World Champion side – the Bulls – to remain at their historic home; it will replace outdated public sports facilities in South-West Bradford with modern provision, and add brand new facilities with regional and national significance for a range of different sports.

The scheme demonstrates the community focus that has long distinguished the Bulls as a professional club. A great deal of preparatory work has been devoted to the scheme to date by the Bulls, Bradford Council, Bradford College and other partners, and there is a momentum behind the OSV project leading into the next report of the review group to the Council Executive, planned for March 2008.

It is understood that considerable progress has been made already in closing the ‘funding gap’ of £12.8m identified by Council Officers prior to the November meeting of the Council Executive, with funding becoming available from a variety of public sources at local, regional, national and European levels. After years of consideration of a variety of different schemes, it seems important that one scheme should go ahead in the near future.

Three Reservations about OSV

At the same time, three reservations may be noted about the OSV project in its current form:

1. Whilst the investment planned for the Odsal Stadium itself is necessary to its continued use by the Bradford Bulls, the level of accommodation envisaged does not meet all of the criteria that might be desirable for spectators in the 21st. Century, in relation to covered stands, for example;

2. The OSV plan seems to have emerged as a solution to a variety of specific practical problems arising from the age and condition of i) the Odsal Stadium (which is a major concern to Bradford Bulls) and ii) some of the existing public facilities in South-West Bradford, including the Richard Dunn Sports Centre (which is a major concern for the Council).
Despite the efforts made within the project to look beyond the immediate requirements of the Bradford Bulls as a club, and rugby league as a sport, it remains a ‘sectional’ project, both in terms of the areas of the Bradford District covered, and the sports involved. OSV might therefore be represented as a ‘tactical’ rather than a ‘strategic’ response to the development of publicly-funded sports facilities within the District;

3. The development of the plans for the future of the Bulls at Odsal appears to have taken place so far without any systematic reference to the existence of the other full-time professional sports club within the District – Bradford City FC. The two clubs are not dissimilar in their overall sizes, or in the level of support they enjoy within the community. The success of either club brings prestige and other benefits to the District. They have worked more or less closely together at different times in the past. And the question of whether they could collaborate more closely now is an open one that has hung over the discussion of the OSV, but has never been addressed directly.

A Case for Broader Consideration

If there is to be large-scale public investment that will benefit full-time professional sport in the District, there is a case for considering whether the investment could be used to provide facilities that are shared between the two full-time professional clubs. This would potentially double the impact of any given investment, with substantial possible advantages for the future revenue streams of both clubs. There is also the question of whether the investment could or should be considered in a frame of reference that is ‘non-sectional’ and ‘strategic’ in relation to the sports’ needs of the whole District, and recognises two football codes rather than one.

The problem is that if the OSV scheme is approved in its present form – which is not geared to participation by Bradford City FC – the issues of i) collaboration between the two clubs, and ii) the use of the public investment in the whole context of sport for the District, will be decided by default. Given the scale of irreversible public funding envisaged at Odsal (which runs into millions, or even tens of millions, of grant-aided support) the two clubs would be obliged to continue along separate paths for the foreseeable future, if OSV is approved at the conclusion of the current review process. The effects of such a decision would continue to be felt for as far ahead as a generation or more, and the decision might be taken in effect as early as March 2008. The window of opportunity for considering alternatives may therefore close within a very short space of time, perhaps as little as three months.

A Request to the Council Executive

In the light of the foregoing, the Council Executive is asked whether it might authorise Council Officers to investigate the whole range of options for the public support of full-time professional sport in the District, including all the options involving collaboration between Bradford Bulls and Bradford City. These consultations would take place as a matter of urgency with all the relevant parties, alongside the Council’s ongoing consideration of the OSV project.

This consultation would have one of two possible outcomes:

1. It might turn out that the OSV project represents the best use of the funding available, having taken account of a full range of alternatives. This would serve to strengthen any eventual decision taken in favour of the project, by providing further reassurance that public funds were being used in an appropriate and justifiable manner;

2. It might turn out that there is some alternative to the OSV project that meets the objectives of both clubs, provides better value for public money and/or meets a greater range of the Council’s strategic objectives for the development of sport within the District. If this outcome occurred, the consultation would have averted the dangers of proceeding with the OSV project in the face of a preferable alternative.